Count Seweryn Potocki was appointed the first supervisor of the university, the first rector being the philologist and philosopher Ivan Rizhsky.

By this time, the campus included laboratories, clinics, an astronomical observatory, a botanical garden and a library.

Rectors were appointed by the Minister of Education, while scientific publications, and academic processes were censored.

The university exerted great influence on school-life in Slobozhanshchyna in the first period of its existence, largely from 1805 to 1835.

[6] In 1943/44, the university returned to Kharkiv (the first academic year after the liberation of the city on 1 November 1943).

[citation needed] On 11 October 1999, Leonid Kuchma, the President of Ukraine issued a decree, in which he, "taking into consideration considerable contribution that Kharkiv State University made to training qualified specialists and to development of science" granted the status of a national university and named it after its founder, Vasyl Karazin.

[citation needed] In 2004, the university was given a twin building (the former Govorov Academy), opposite Svobody Square.

[citation needed] Kharkiv National University holds the second place in Ukraine in volume of publications and citations in scientific database Scopus and the Hirsch index, with the best academic results in the School of Medicine and School of Biology.